Releasable holder for broom handles



y 1952 L. R. MILLER 2,598,065

RELEASABLE HOLDER FOR BROOM HANDLES Filed Jan. 19, 1950 Juventor Zilif/Vf I. M/ZZf/i AJ-MJrZQL -M attorneys Patented May 27, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RELEASABLE HOLDER FOR BROOM HANDLES This invention relates to a holder for the quickly releasable support of the handles of brooms and other implements.

It is a primary object of the invention to provide a holder having freely movable clamping arms subject to gravity bias in a handle-engaging direction and from which the handle is instantly releasable by upward movement, and without requiring manipulation of the clamping arms.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel construction for a holder of this character which is adapted to facilitate manufacture and inherently to afiord limited movement of the clamping arms through the range requisite for their functioning, while limiting them to such range so that they will remain permanently subject to gravity bias and will always be in positions to receive a broom handle or the like and to release it.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation of a device embodying the invention as it appears when in use to support a handle.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the device, the handle position being indicated in hatched lines.

Fig. 3 is a view in side elevation of the device shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail view taken in section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a perspective View on an enlarged scale showing the device of the invention partially assembled, one of the clamping fingers being fragmentarily shown in separated position.

Fig. 6 is a view taken in section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

The device comprises the mounting plate I with boss means 8 pressed sufiiciently forwardly to receive the anchoring heads of the pivoted fingers 9 and 10. Each of these is desirably provided with a rubber jacket ll, although this forms no essential part of the invention.

The two clamping fingers 9 and ID are pivoted to the mounting plate in laterally spaced positions and upon axes inclined outwardly and downwardly from a point between their respective pivotal connections. In a broad sense, the specific means of effecting such pivotal connection is immaterial, but in practice, the means herein disclosed has been found not only inexpensive but peculiarly adapted for the purposes of the invention. To this end, each of the pivoted clamping fingers has a flattened head portion l2 which is provided with oppositely disposed lateral notches l3. At the respective points where the fingers are to be pivoted, the

boss means is slit toprovide tongues at [4 which are initially pressed out of the plane of the boss as shown in full lines in Fig. 5 and in dotted lines in Fig. 6. Pressing the tongue out of the plane of the boss leaves an opening at l5 into which the laterally notched head portions [2 of the respective clamping fingers may be manipulated, the width of the opening being so correlated to the width of the respective heads that the side marginal portions [6 and ll of boss means 8, adjacent openings l5 therein, will be received into the notches l3 as best shown in Fig. 4. Thereupon the tongue [4 is pressed back into the plane of the boss means to reduce the size of the opening to a dimension only slightly exceeding in thickness the head portion I2 of the respective finger. This confines and interlocks the finger with the mounting plate while accommodating pivotal movement through a limited range which, due to the cramping of the notched portions at the head upon the boss means, will permit each finger to pivot from a position slightly below the horizontal as shown in Figs. 1 and 3 to a corresponding angular distance above the horizontal.

The openings wherein the heads of the fingers are interlocking pivoted to the boss means of the plate are spaced slightly farther apart than the diameter of the handle 20 which is to be engaged by the clamping fingers in the manner shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. However, due to the oblique and opposite angles at which the. pivot axes are disposed, the respective clamping fingers will approach each other in their downward movement to the limit of the range of oscillation permitted them by the interlocking connection above described. The dimensions are such that in the course of such pivotal downward movement, the fingers approach more closely to each other than the diameter of the handle 20. They are biased for such downward movement by gravity and. it is important to note that they are at all times free to respond to gravity bias, their movement being limited to a range in which they never can even approach top dead center.

With the fingers hanging downwardly, as shown in Fig. 2, and outwardly convergent, by reason of the oppositely oblique inclination of their axes of pivotal movement, the operator need only thrust a broom handle upwardly between the fingers to displace the fingers angularly in an upward direction and thereupon to separate them sufficiently to receive the handle. As soon as the operator releases the handle, the tendency of the handle to fall supplements the gravity bias on the fingers to cause the fingers and the handle to move together toward a position in which the fingers clampingly engage the handle for its continued support.

The release of the handle may be effected with equal facility, it being only necessary to lift it. In the course of the upward movement of the handle, the fingers will automatically be moved to positions in which they no longer clampingly engage it, and the fingers, in the course of such movement, will open up to permit the handle to be moved freely from between them.

The rubber or other elastic covering at H not only protects the finish on the handle but increases the frictional interengagement between the handle and the clamping fingers and is therefore desirable. It is immaterial, however, whether the rubber jacket be made continuous across the ends of the fingers where it has no function, and it is also immaterial whether the fingers be made hollow as herein illustrated.

The handle need not contact the back plate or any other metal part, being supported free of such contact by the rubber jacketed fingers as shown-in Figs. 2 and 3.

I claim:

1. The combination with a mounting plate, of a set of clamping fingers having rear end portions spaced laterally of the plate and in pivotal connection with th plate upon axes oppositely inclined to the horizontal, the said fing'ers projecting outwardly-from said plate and beingbodily oscillatable about the axes of their'respective pivotal connections with the plate, said fingers being gravity biased downwardly abouts'aid axes toward positions in which the said fingers are outwardly convergent and being movable about saidaxes upwardly from the said positions toward positions in which the said arms are inwardly convergent, whereby said fingers are adapted for-clamping engagement with a handle received therebetween, and are adapted in response to upward manipulationof suchhan'dle'to move upwardly for the release thereof.

2. The combination of a mountingplate having an anchorage portion provided with laterally spaced obliquely extending slots oppositely inclined to the horizontal, thesaid anchorage portion of the plate having margins bounding said slots anddefining fulcrums oppositely inclined to the horizontal, clamping fingers projecting out- 50 wardly from the plate and having relatively fiattened rear end portions extending through said slots and in bearing engagement with said margins to be pivoted thereon, and means interlocking said fingers with the anchorage portion of the plate against displacement inwardly or outwardly relative thereto, the said fingers being gravity biased downwardly to outwardly convergent positions adapted to clamp a workpiece therebetween being movable upwardly to inwardly converging positions to release such workpiece, the engagement of the flattened rear end portions of said fingers between said margins limiting the range of oscillation of said fingers upon said margins.

3. The device of claim 2 in which the anchorage portion of said plate comprises margins at the ends of the respective slots and with which notched lateral marginal portions of the flattened ends of the fingers are engaged to constitute said interlocked means.

4. The combination with a mounting plate having obliquely disposed slots oppositely inclined to the horizontal, said plate having about each slot three contiguous margins in relatively fixed connection and a fourth margin which comprises the end of a bendable tongue of said plate, of a pair of fingers having laterally notched flattened rear end portions engaged in said slots and respectively interlocked with the margins of the plate at the ends of the slots, the said tongues being deformable for the introduction and removal of the flattened rear end portions of the fingers and retaining the said rear ends in said slots when the tongue is substantially in the plane of the plate, the said fingers being thereby pivotally connected with the plate for movement in downwardly convergent planes and being gravity biased toward a first position in which said fingers are outwardly convergent and from which said fingers are freely movable upwardly toward a second position in which said fingers are-outwardly divergent.

LAURENCE R. MILLER.

REFERENES CXTED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Arey et al Jan. 2, 1923 Number 

